When talking about nutrition I like to view the human body similar to a car, our brain is like the car’s engine, our food like the car’s fuel. Given the proper fuel and good maintenance a car will last for years. Poorly kept with the wrong fuel, that poor car won’t go far, similar to the human body and mind.
Nutrition has a great ability to affect the functioning of the brain and hence be associated with anxiety, depression and mood. The article “Feeding Minds” published by the Mental Health Foundation gives great information into some aspects of nutrition which affects the functioning of the brain. It explains how a balanced diet is important for ensuring optimum brain health, as such ensuring protein, carbohydrates, fats especially the essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and water are consumed to appropriate levels, is essential for optimum brain health. However at no point are substances like caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and sugar mentioned as being optimal for a healthy brain. Unfortunately the opposite is true.
Personally I don’t believe a very small amount of any of these substances is essentially bad for the health of the brain, but unfortunately people rarely have a small amount of one of these substances alone. It is the quantity of caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and sugar many people consume throughout the week which I believe is a major issue.
Irish dietitian Orla Walsh wrote a very nice article in the Irish Independent recently clarifying the role of fruit in sugar intake and whether too much fruit, due to its high sugar content could therefore be bad for you? Sugar of course comes in many forms but what I focus on when I lecture in nutrition is added sugar and total sugar. Total sugar comes from everything, it is a natural part of the food. Fruit has sugar since it has fructose, but fruit also has so many good properties providing so many essential vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, the fact it provides a natural sugar in the form of fructose, does not mean fruit should be shunned.
Much research into mental health shows those with higher fruit intake have better mental health. The issue for me is added sugar, that is not a part of the food, simply added for taste, provides little vitamin or mineral benefits to a diet, rather disrupts the balance of a diet. The reason I say this is, if a diet has more energy coming from added sugar, which has little true nutritional value, there is less room to consume healthy nutritious food as part of the diet; hence the chance of nutrient imbalance is increased. According to the World Health Organisation we should aim to ensure added sugar is not greater than 5% of total energy intake.
When you think of instances where added sugar may be consumed, it may be as sugar added to tea, coffee, soft drinks including cola’s or perhaps jam, sweets, and chocolate of course. Unfortunately none of these products are very beneficial to a diet; provide protein, essential fatty acids or vitamins and minerals necessary for good mental health and the production of neurotransmitters.
The other unfortunate aspect is several contain caffeine. Caffeine has the ability to help produce neurotransmitters like adrenaline which keep you going. Neurotransmitters are brain chemicals which influence how you feel, your emotions, fear, pleasure, joy, anger, mood, memory, cognition, attention, concentration, alertness, energy, appetite, cravings, sleep, and the perception of pain. An imbalance in neurotransmitter production and function has the capacity to affect the way your brain performs. So when you take caffeine, your brain releases neurotransmitters, you feel good but then begin to lack energy again. Why? Your stimulus to release the neurotransmitter is the caffeine, so you need caffeine to produce more neurotransmitters again, if you don’t get the caffeine you may not function as well, maybe begin to feel anxious, tired, have a headache and hence the cycle starts again.
It’s similar with nicotine, which also influences neurotransmitter release, which is why these substances are so addictive and difficult to stop. This does beg the question – do we really need to stop the caffeine though? It’s not that bad for you? Although it can reduce iron absorption it has also been suggested by the World Cancer Research Fund to reduce risk of liver cancer, so it’s not all bad.
However an aspect of caffeine I think it’s important to consider is why is it being consumed by the person? Is it because they need a kick start because they have not got enough rest, which in itself is not good for a healthy brain and can lead to anxiety? Is caffeine consumed due to alcohol consumption the night before, which will also have affected the natural release of brain neurotransmitters, and caused nutrient displacement in the diet?
Alcohol also of course provides no real nutritional benefit to a person’s diet leaving less space to ensure they achieve the correct nutrients they need. Balance is very important, the more products consumed with little nutritional value, the more chance nutritional deficiency could occur, hence the person might not get the amount of essential fatty acids, protein or other nutrients they need for optimal brain health. This may be compounded by the fact their ability to produce and react to neurotransmitters naturally, may have been reduced by their current diet.
Sugar has a great capacity to affect the brain, apart from the high and low blood glucose it gives you, which in turns affects energy levels, and release of all important neurotransmitters which make you feel good, research is increasingly referring to the ability of sugar to be associated with inflammation of the brain which is associated with depression. Hence reduction of added sugar intake appears to be sensible advice for better mental health. It must also be said that these 4 substances sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine are also highly addictive, people crave them, hence withdrawal unfortunately is difficult and it takes time for the brain to learn to naturally produce the neurotransmitters it needs once more, hence anxiety with withdrawal is often commonplace.
It quite amusing, we rarely hear of vegetable addicts, or indeed fish addicts. Vegetables and fish enable optimal and natural production of neurotransmitters by the brain, so wouldn’t it be lovely if we ate enough to maximize our natural neurotransmitter production. I wonder what would happen to the level of mental health if we tried increase vegetable and fish consumption, just to start off.
Today’s diet unfortunately seems to have moved more in the directions of increased sugar and caffeine consumption. If you add alcohol to that the scenario in terms of mental health, the outlook appears bleak. For optimum mental health dietary balance is very important, focus on fresh vegetables and whole fruit for vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, fish to ensure you consume the correct level of essential fatty acids and protein, wholegrains to ensure slower release of carbohydrates and optimal B vitamin intake, nuts and seeds for vitamins, minerals and good fat types, reduce caffeine intake, don’t drink alcohol, if you do drink alcohol reduce it significantly, do not add sugar to food or eat lots of foods with “added sugar”, hence confectionery of all sorts should be eaten occasionally and drink enough fluids, including calcium containing beverages. This wouldn’t be a bad start for optimal mental health and reduced anxiety in society, in terms of nutrition.
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